ED Raids I-PAC Offices in Kolkata; Mamata Banerjee Accuses Centre of Political Vendetta

Kolkata: Political tensions escalated in poll-bound West Bengal on Thursday after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted raids at the Kolkata office of political consultancy firm Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) in Salt Lake, as well as at the residence of its chief Pratik Jain on Loudon Street. The agency also searched a trader’s office in Burrabazar’s Posta area.

According to reports, Pratik Jain was being questioned during the searches. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee reached Jain’s residence amid the ongoing operation.

I-PAC, founded by political strategist Prashant Kishor ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, is currently working with the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the state government. The association began after the 2019 General Elections and is widely credited as a key factor behind TMC’s landslide victory in the 2021 West Bengal Assembly elections. Kishor later entered active politics and launched the Jan Suraaj party, which contested but lost the Bihar Assembly elections last year.

While some reports said the raids are linked to an alleged fake government jobs scam involving an organised network that duped people by offering fraudulent employment, other reports suggested the searches may be connected to a coal smuggling case. In that case, TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee has been questioned multiple times by central agencies.

The raids come just months ahead of the West Bengal Assembly elections and amid heightened political friction over the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the state.

Reacting sharply, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee accused the ED of seizing party-related documents during the raids and blamed Union Home Minister Amit Shah for targeting her party. She alleged that sensitive party data, including hard disks and candidate-related information, were taken during the searches and termed the action politically motivated in the run-up to elections.

She also linked the raids to the electoral roll revision exercise, alleging that the Centre was attempting to gather information about her party while simultaneously removing voters’ names from the rolls.

Meanwhile, Leader of the Opposition in West Bengal and BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari criticised the Chief Minister’s presence at the raid site, accusing her of interfering with the functioning of a central investigative agency. He alleged that the Chief Minister had a history of obstructing central agencies and termed her actions as an attempt to disrupt the investigation. He further said that such conduct by a constitutional authority was condemnable and claimed that the ED would take appropriate action as per law.

The ED has not yet issued an official statement detailing the exact grounds of the searches.